Another week, another chapter. Sorry this one is a little later than others, but we're here. Thanks to my co-authors Brightburn1985 and thomasmarieamell, who has now changed his name to Bartholomew Henry Allen.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Arrowverse
Cisco has been like staring off into space lately, everybody just wrote it off as shock to Wells' secret. However, Cisco is feeling like he is living in an alternate universe, he always feels like he is in a dream. He sometimes dream about Harrison Wells, or whoever he is, vibrating his hand through him, killing him.
After Cisco remained completely for a few seconds, the others were beginning to get concerned for him. "Cisco?" Barry asked tentatively. "Hey, you alright bud?"
Cisco's eyes refocused from whatever he was seeing. "Yeah, I'm just getting a headache or something," he dismisses their concern.
Cisco had to be having a psychotic break. Why else would he be reliving memories of himself dying? The vibrating hand from Wells made some sense since it turned out he may be the Reverse Flash, but he just learned of this. He shouldn't be having memories of being killed.
Yeah, it was just stress and dreams of fearing Wells was the Reverse Flash. Then again, he was awake, and he'd been getting this dream for about a month now.
He just needed to get his mind off it. And he had just the idea of how to do it.
Sitting in front of the computer in the Cortex, Cisco was looking at the blueprints of the entire building, maybe there was something hidden in a wall or anything of the like.
Caitlin and Barry walked in seeing their friend heavily focused on the screen in front of him. "Hey Cisco, what are you doing?" Caitlin asked.
"Looking at the schematics of the building, seeing if Wells had anything hidden or something that may indicate what he's been doing," Cisco replied.
"You haven't done this before?" Barry questioned, thinking it would have been instrumental after the accelerator exploded.
"I never had any reason to look beyond the Pipeline or the Cortex. Plus, it's a big building, lots of places for Wells to hide something," Cisco defends himself.
Suddenly, an alert sounded and a room was highlighted in the blueprints.
"What's that?" Caitlin gestured to the highlighted room.
"That shouldn't be there," Cisco answers, just as confused as that room shouldn't exist. There should be nothing but a hallway there.
Intrigued, the trio make their way to the indicated hallway where the room that shouldn't exist lied.
Making it to the hallway, Cisco takes out the tablet he brought with him that contained the blueprints of the building. Checking once more to make sure they were in the right area, he gestures to the wall in front of them. "Okay, it should be right here,"
Barry lightly touches the wall, seeing if there was anything that could somehow reveal the supposes room. When his hand left the tile to the next, the area where his hand touched lit up blue and the tile made way to reveal the dark room.
Cautiously, the three of them made their way into the unexplainable room. As soon as all three of them entered the room, the lights turned on to show another mannequin that was wearing a yellow suit instead of the usual red they were used to seeing.
The Man in Yellow.
"Oh my god," Caitlin mumbled. Until now, she still held onto some hope that Dr. Wells wasn't involved with the Reverse Flash. But here was the suit of the man that killed Barry's mother. There was no denying it now.
Barry turned to look away from the suit. It was still too painful, even after 11 years. When he did, he noticed a podium and above it was a hologram. Of a newspaper. With The Flash on the front cover.
"Guys, look at this," Barry pulls the attention of the two scientists behind him to look at what he discovered.
They turn to see the large, floating newspaper with their friend on it along with the headline, 'Flash Missing! Vanishes in Crisis!'
"Holy frack," Cisco mumbled.
Barry quickly reads over the contents of the newspaper to see what happens that would cause him to disappear. "After an epic street battle with The Reverse Flash, our city's Scarlet Speedster vanishes in a burst of light." Barry says in disbelief.
"Barry, look at the date," Caitlin says, reading a part he didn't.
"April 25, 2024." Barry reads. With the reveal of the future date, Barry remembers something The Reverse Flash mentioned when he confronted him during Christmas. "Guys, when I fought The Reverse Flash during Christmas he said we would be fighting for centuries,"
It didn't make sense to him at the time. It didn't even come to mind when he first traveled through time, but now it was starting to make sense. The ability to continue a fight across centuries without living through it all.
"Wait a minute," Caitlin says. "You can't actually believe this is from the… future, do you?"
"If that's true, then that means… Dr. Wells, or whoever he is, is also from-" Cisco starts to say.
"From the future." Barry cuts him off.
"I got to say, I'm really digging the brighter red suit, and the white on the symbol? That's dope," Cisco comments on the design of the new suit in the picture.
"Wait a minute," Cisco pauses as he thinks of something. "Suppose we now change the colour on your emblem. Will it be because we got the idea from this? Then that would mean we're living in a causal nexus…" Cisco trails off, lost in thought of the implications of the timeline now that even such a small part of the future was revealed.
"Wow, this is trippy. Like, Marty and the polaroids trippy." Cisco exclaims.
"Even more so than finding out Dr. Wells is from the future?" Caitlin questioned him.
"Oh, yeah. That. We finally figured out who the Reverse Flash is. Mazel tov!" Cisco exclaimed in a small celebration of learning one mystery in the vast well of things they've yet to explain.
"Hebrew. Ancient language of the Jews," a voice sounded in the room. The three of them aback at the new voice.
"Uh-uh!" Cisco yells, staring at the ceiling as if someone were going to drop on them in an instant. "Who was that?"
"Is someone here?" Barry asks. "Hello?"
The newspaper disappeared and in its place, a pixelated blue head of a woman appeared above the podium. "Good evening Barry Allen."
Startled, and a little nervous, Barry stutters in his introduction to the floating head. "H-hi. Y-you know who I am?"
"Of course. Barry Allen. Director of CCPD. CSI Division." it responds by listing some facts about the man.
"Director?" Barry questions the information. But this is apparently information from 10 years in the future.
"Guess you get a promotion." Cisco says.
"Husband to Caitlin Snow-Allen. Also known as The Flash. Founding member of the Justi-" it was saying before being interrupted.
"Hold on right there," Caitlin cuts off the intelligence. "Husband? To Caitlin Snow?" she asks, horrified.
"Snow-Allen," it lightly corrects her.
"You're telling me, I marry that?" Caitlin gestures to Barry, not even looking at him.
"Yes, Caitlin Snow-Allen. Leading bioengineer of STAR Facilities. Wife of Barry Allen. Also known as Killer Frost. Mother of-." it lists information on Caitlin in the future before being cut off again.
"Okay, we should stop asking questions about our future. I mean, who knows what's happening to the timeline just by us learning this." Cisco tries to get her away from the head. After so long, he's developed a sense of when a fight is about to break out between his friends.
"For once, I agree with Caitlin. We need to do all we can so I can prevent being married to that witch," Barry glares at Caitlin.
"And I can't be stuck getting engaged to a demon." Caitlin glares back.
"Shouldn't we be focusing on Dr. Wells and whatever the hell this thing is?" Cisco tries to bring their focus back to the important matter at hand.
"Fine," they both agree, but a silent agreement that this conversation is nowhere near finished.
"What are you?" Barry asks the head again.
"I am Gideon. An interactive artificial intelligence," Gideon responds.
"AI," Cisco whispers in disbelief. "Sick,"
"You know Dr. Wells?" Barry asks again.
"Yes," Gideon answers them again.
When she didn't go on to explain further, they all shrugged to each other. Guess they needed to be more clear in what they were asking.
"Do you know who he really is?" Barry tries to make sure he was better understood this time.
"I don't understand the question." Gideon lightly shakes her head at the question that she had no idea how she was supposed to answer.
"I-I mean, what is he doing here?" Barry words his question differently.
Gideon's head shrinks and she creates a body to make it seem more like they're talking to a person. "To kill you," Gideon answers.
Barry reels in shock. Never would he have guessed that. Wells may have killed his mother, but with all the things Wells has done to keep him alive made it seem impossible he came here to kill him in the end.
Wells saved him from his coma. Helped him learn his powers as well as save countless innocent lives. Why would he do all that if he were going to kill him?
While Barry is still processing the information, Cisco's phone sounds an alert. "Wells is in the building," he tells them.
"What? How do you know that?" Caitlin asks, looking at his phone.
"I put a tracer on his chair, which if we're wrong and he is paralyzed, I'm going to hell for that one," Cisco worries slightly, but not too much since Wells is apparently The Reverse Flash. An injury that would have left him crippled would heal in a matter of days since he was a speedster.
Cisco looks at his phone again to see where Wells currently is. "He's heading this way. Ask questions fast." Cisco warns them.
Barry turned back to Gideon. She seemed to be willing to give him all the answers he wanted, and they didn't have time to risk she wouldn't answer to Caitlin or Cisco.
"Why did he kill Nora Allen?" Barry asks.
"Because he was angry." she answered. Wells killed his mother because he was angry? Hearing the pitiful reason made Barry angry. His mother's death was a result of a temper tantrum.
"About what?" he continues to ask.
"That you escaped." Gideon said.
He escaped? Was she talking about when he was whisked away twenty blocks from the house? He spent the rest of the night running back home, constantly worried about what was going on. It was one of the main reasons the police officers didn't believe him about the man in the lightning. They didn't know what he was doing outside, but he couldn't have known what was going on when he was twenty blocks from the crime scene.
"He's on Level B," Cisco says.
"What does he want from me?" Barry asks once again.
"For you to be The Flash." Gideon answers in such a calm manner, if she weren't a computer program, it would be worrying.
"W-Why?" Barry asked, "Why is being The Flash important to him? Why help me become faster?" He asked, getting angry as he was not getting the answers he wanted to hear.
"Because he's stu-" Gideon was interrupted by Cisco.
"Guys, Wells is in the Cortex. We should get out of here while we still can."
"But what about the AI? What if she-it tells Dr. Wells that we were here? We can't have that happening now, can we?" Caitlin asked, not wanting their investigation to blow up.
"If I can get into its operating system, I could access its memory core," Cisco comes up with the idea to make Gideon forget they were ever there.
"Gideon, could you show us your operating system?" Barry asks pleadingly.
"Of course," Gideon agrees before a panel in the wall behind her opens to reveal… something.
Cisco takes one look and laughs without humour. "Yeah. That's not gonna happen." he makes it clear he has no idea where to even start with that.
"Guys, what are we going to do?" Caitlin asks, looking around as if searching for an answer.
"Gideon can you just like, not tell Wells that we were here?" Barry took a shot. It was most likely the only thing they could hope for.
"Of course. I will accept any command given to me by you," Gideon immediately agrees.
Gideon's words would just have to be good enough because they were out of time. "Alright, come on. We have to go!" Cisco urges them all out the door.
Before they do, something comes to Barry's mind and he just has to ask. "Wait! Why? Would you accept my commands?" Barry questions Gideon.
"Because, you created me," Gideon reveals before disappearing entirely.
Barry reels in shock. He knew he was smart, but to think he would one day go on to invent a working artificial intelligence. One they could have casual conversations with and be provided answers as if they were searching on Google.
He would have liked to stay in the room and continue to question the AI for information. There were so many questions he didn't know where to start. But with Wells on the way they didn't have the time for that. Barry grabbed his two friends and dashed out of there. The door closed behind them and the lights turned off.
They needed to have a conversation about what they just learned.
The STAR Labs trio made their way to the West House where they could hopefully talk about everything they had learned. They had invited Joe and Eddie to attend as well. They had recently revealed to Eddie that Barry was The Flash as having another police officer in the know and assisting them in their investigation would be a boon to their operations.
"So, run that by me one more time," Joe said after the three scientists relayed what had just happened to them a few hours ago. "What did you find in that…" he trailed off, not sure what he should be calling that room.
"Time Vault," Cisco supplied.
"We found an AI that was created by me in the future, it said some facts about me like I'm gonna be the Director of the CCPD and apparently I'm gonna marry Ms. Frosty over there." Barry explained with an eye roll as he got to the part where he will marry Caitlin in the future.
"Like it's easy for me to learn that I'm your wife in the future Fleet Feet," Caitlin sassed him. "I'm very much debating that I've suffered from a psychotic break to even consider being your spouse,"
"A psychotic break?" Barry asks incredulously. "We both must be mentally deranged to agree to spend the rest of our lives together,"
"Guys, I think we're focusing on the wrong details at the moment," Cisco interrupts their little feud. "Wells is The Reverse Flash? Shouldn't we be talking about that?"
"Right, you found out what? That Wells is from the future?" Joe asked to clarify things again. After all the things that have happened since the accelerator, he didn't think things could get any crazier.
"Essentially yes," Barry confirms.
"Okay, I know that we've seen a lot of things this past year that can't exactly be explained, but time travel? Really?" Eddie voices his doubts.
"I did it," Barry speaks up.
When everyone turns to face him with confusion, Barry lightly tries to defend himself. "I mean I will do it," he comes up on the spot.
"What?" Joe asks, still just as confused.
Cisco however immediately remembers what Barry's talking about. "Remember the blood we found in Barry's old house? There were two. One wasn't recognized, but the other belonged to an adult Barry Allen. Meaning someday in the future, Barry will travel back in time to that moment."
"Okay," Eddie says. He was still sceptical about all this, but after a point, you sort of just give up on thinking things from a rational point of view.
"I wasn't actually talking about that," Barry decides to be honest. "I may have actually time travelled already," he reveals.
"What are you talking about?" Caitlin asks.
"Okay, so I was running because I was trying to stop a tsunami from destroying the city…" Barry was explaining the circumstances of him travelling through time.
"When was this?" Caitlin asked, because she was fairly certain she would remember a tsunami.
"A couple of weeks ago," Barry tells them. "Right before you started getting those dreams." he addresses Cisco.
Cisco had told them he had been suffering from a recurring nightmare. One where he was killed by a vibrating fist courtesy of Dr. Wells. At first he chalked that up to being forced to look into Wells because of Joe, but he started to get really concerned when he was experiencing this dreaming when he was wide awake.
"Oh, you mean the one where Dr. Wells crushes my heart with a vibrating fist? That one?" Cisco asked, sarcastically.
"Yes, but what if they're not dreams?" Barry suggests.
"Then what are they?" Joe asks him.
"Memories," Barry says. "What if before I ran back in time, Cisco found out the truth about Dr. Wells and killed him. But when I ran back in time, it erased all that and the things I did changed the timeline, so that event never happened?"
"But if it never happened how can Cisco remember?" Joe points out the flaw in his idea.
"I don't know," Barry relents. "I don't know, but I think what matters is that he does. Cisco may be the key to finding out the truth of Dr. Wells,"
Somehow, they needed to get Cisco to access his dream and communicate with them at the same time. Whenever he saw it, he was paralyzed by watching the events unfold and it acted as a dream, where he would slowly forget what happened as time passed.
The big takeaway was Wells was The Reverse Flash and he kills Cisco. They needed to learn what led up to it to either avoid it or recreate it to get Wells admit he killed Barry's mother.
They were currently in STAR Labs tinkering with a pair of glasses. "So, what am I looking at?" Barry asked.
"I've designed these goggles to be able to allow a person to interact with the world while they are asleep by sending electrical surges to activate both parts of their brain whether they are awake or asleep. I just need to figure out the electrical output so I don't damage the patient by frying their brain." Caitlin says. "Want to test it out Barry? I need a guinea pig,"
"Stop treating me like a lab rat. I am not going to be a dummy test for every dangerous experiment we're conducting," Barry says.
"But you're perfect for the job. With your increased healing, you can get back up in a matter of moments and test it again," Caitlin points out.
"No, I'm not testing another creation of yours. Not after last time," Barry rejects her offer. He could still taste the smoke.
They managed to complete a prototype of the device with some unknowing help from Dr. Wells. They took the device to CCPD as they couldn't risk Dr. Wells coming in while they were in session. They couldn't let him know they knew he was The Reverse Flash. They had the element of surprise and that was their greatest weapon at the moment.
Cisco was nervous about testing these out. But unlike Barry, he didn't have the option of not testing it out. But still, this was untested territory. They had no idea what would happen if he put them on or if they would even work. But they were fairly certain he wouldn't die just because he did in the dream.
"Just relax. The goggles are emitting a sound wave that should put you to sleep easier," Caitlin advises Cisco as he puts on the goggles and lies down on a table.
"Okay, but I should warn you. I don't fall asleep easily. I mean, I'm not an insomniac but…" Cisco trails off. His voice shows his drowsiness before he finally succumbs to the power of the goggles and falls asleep.
"Oh, so that's how you get him to shut up." Joe said with a chuckle.
Caitlin was staring at a computer screen excitedly. "It's working. He's entering REM," she announced.
Barry took a glance at the screen to confirm her claim before turning back to Cisco. "Cisco, can you hear me? You're dreaming bud,"
"Woah, this is so freaky. I mean, I know this is all a dream, but it feels so real," Cisco says to them. The goggles work!
"What is 'dream you' doing?" Barry asks.
"Caitlin just left. I asked her to distract Wells for the morning." Cisco informs them.
"Why do you want Wells out of the labs?" Barry asks.
"I think he might have tampered with my work. I need to go check," Cisco says. They were all reminded of when the force field Cisco created failed to contain The Reverse Flash during Christmas and ended up beating Wells to an inch of his life. That had to be what he was talking about.
"Okay. Okay, I'm walking down the hallway towards where we trapped The Reverse Flash during Christmas." Cisco tells them of another transition in his dream. "Oh man, I love this shirt. I thought the dryer ate it," he added his comments. The dream temporarily took over him for the time.
"Stay focused Cisco," Barry lightly scolds him for straying from their original plan.
"I'm looking over the information. This data, it doesn't make any sense. The supercapacitors were all still fully charged. There's absolutely no reason The Reverse Flash should have escaped." Cisco says in frustration.
They all wait to hear what happens next. Obviously he finds out something incriminating about Wells to warrant being killed.
"Oh my god!" Cisco suddenly exclaims. "It was a hologram! He tricked us!"
The Reverse Flash they confronted was actually a hologram with a pre-recorded message? It would make sense why he only addressed Wells. He was the only one he could confirm would stay on script.
If he could program a hologram into the force field without anyone noticing, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that he could create a brief glitch in the system to provide enough time to allow him into the force field where he could then proceed to beat himself. There was still the question of how he hit himself when they could see they were in different places at once.
Another question for another day.
"Wells is here," Cisco informs them. "Eobard Thawne," he corrects himself after a moment.
"Thawne? Like Eddie Thawne?" Joe questions the similarity of his partner's last name with this madman.
"He's admitting to everything. He killed your mother Barry. He's confessing." Cisco reveals. After a moment he adds, "It was you Barry. He was there to kill you that night,"
Barry's knees buckle at the revelation. For his entire adult life, he blamed himself for his mother's death and father's incarceration. He'd always had it in the back of his mind that he was a child and couldn't have done anything at the time. But now that it was known that he was the intended target that night and his parents got caught in the crossfire. It really was all his fault.
"His hand. It's vibrating," Cisco says fearfully.
The monitors begin to sound rapidly. Energy levels were increasing to dangerous levels. "Oh my god. He's going into shock," Caitlin reports. Her best friend's life might very well be on the line here.
"Cisco, listen to me. Wells can't do anything, you're going to be fine." Barry tries to soothe Cisco to bring his energy levels back to normal.
"Well you better be right about that because he's about to kill me!" Cisco yells.
"Guys, if we don't get him out of there soon he's going to have a stroke," Caitlin warns them worriedly.
"Get me out of here!" Cisco yells in panic.
They couldn't actually do anything. These goggles were still experimental. They were designed to induce dreams and allow the wearer to communicate with the outside world. They weren't meant to cause any harm. If anything, it should be the same as if he were having another dream. The only difference was he was actually aware it was a dream.
They couldn't risk taking Cisco out early. They had no idea of the repercussions. It might cause him to have the stroke either way. The best course of action would be to have him go through the dream like he'd done so before multiple times.
"Don't let him kill me!" Cisco yelled as he woke up from his dream, fear can be seen in his eyes and he was breathless.
Once it was confirmed he was okay, everyone exchanged looks with each other. They weren't sure how Cisco was still able to retain knowledge from an erased event, but they weren't going to question it at the moment. What matters is that they know Wells is The Reverse Flash. He wasn't even Wells, he was a man named Eobard Thawne that was from the distant future.
What had they gotten themselves into?
After reviewing all they learned from Cisco's dream, a plan was formulating in Barry's head. A way to expose Wells and have him admit to being the one who killed his mother and free his father from prison.
"You want to recreate those circumstances so Wells will admit to everything?" Caitlin asks him.
"Yeah," Barry confirms.
"The ones that got Cisco killed the first time? What's preventing that from happening again?" Caitlin questioned him. She didn't want her best friend to die by the hands of this madman. Again.
"We'll be prepared this time. We know what's going to happen, we have the advantage here," Barry reasoned.
"Cisco, you don't need to do this. You've already cheated death once by accident, you don't have to risk it again," Caitlin addressed Cisco.
"We need him to confess. Otherwise my father will remain trapped in that cell for the rest of his life," Barry said.
"Look Barry, I am sorry about your parents. I truly am. My father died when I was a child and I've been estranged from my mother ever since. You don't know what I would give to go back to those times when everything was simpler, but I don't want Cisco risking his life for your father's freedom," Caitlin argued. "There are some times when you just need to move on,"
"I have dedicated my entire life to freeing my father. Sometimes I thought I had gone crazy and I was chasing a fantasy. But for the first time I actually have a chance at my mother's actual murderer and being reunited with my father." Barry said.
"Okay, people, let's break this up," Cisco clapped his hands and separated his friends from each other. As much as he enjoyed watching the sparks from their arguments, it was time to get involved as their best friend. "Caitlin, this is my choice in the matter. And I'm going to do it. Wells, or whoever he is, is a psychopath and he needs to go down. I can do it,"
"But at what cost?" Caitlin asked in concern. "Your life?"
"In my dream, Wells said he thought of me like a son. I can get close to him and get him to admit to everything just like last time." Cisco added. "I'll make something to protect me, I'll be completely safe,"
"And how are you going to do that?" Caitlin asked.
"The containment field. It doesn't just keep things from getting out. It also keeps things from getting in," Cisco told them his idea. "I'll need to recalibrate a few things to make the external shell impervious to speedsters, but I can have that up in an hour tops,"
"Okay," Caitlin reluctantly agreed. "If this is what you've decided on, I'll give you as much support as you need,"
"Thank you," Cisco said, giving her a hug in reassurance. "I promise everything will be fine,"
"It better be," Caitlin said to him.
She turned back to Barry and leaned to mumble in his ear. "A hero doesn't just catch the bad guys. They protect lives. He better be okay Fleet Feet,"
"You have my word Ms. Frosty," Barry promised her.
"That's what I'm worried about," she grumbled under her breath, too low for anyone else to hear.
A little shorter than I thought, but I figured this would be a good send-off point. We've got a little confirmation on the future as you all should know, the future is never set in stone. But I bet you all were pretty happy to see that.
As always, leave your comments, questions and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. You guys are what keep me going. With that being said, I might be taking a break after season 1 is done just to make sure everything is set for season 2. It shouldn't be more than a week or two, if at all.
Keep safe everyone. Exercise when you can and wash your hands.